Top of the (teacher) class
by moose-girl6
Summary: Another call from the school, another visit with her deviant brother's teacher, why should this be any different? This was a mini gift for Tigereyes45 as part of the tumblr GOT Secret Santa. Merry Christmas! This is also in Frappucinos and Friendship.


**Top of the (teacher) class.**

Once more and she would really start to lose control.

One more detention and Rickon would be barred from ever leaving the house. She would call Jon back home and find the meanest septor imaginable and hold Rickon's head by the ears to make sure the boy passed his exams.

This was the sixth time this term that Arya had been called in to school to explain why her fuckwit of a brother couldn't just do his homework.

Yes, their parents had died, yes Robb was still missing, and yes life was all round shit at the minute, but if Arya could drag herself back to college, then Rickon could do his Science homework.

Rickon, of course, disagreed.

"Hello? Is that Rickon's guardian?"

"Yes, yes, I'm here- ah shi- sorry-" she skidded to a stop at the wall, grabbing the phone from the bracket. The shrill noise of the phone had cut through her afternoon and jolted her back to reality, but that didn't mean she was fully dressed or ready to talk to anyone, "Fuck- yes, so sorry, this is Arya Stark, is that the school again?" Arya tried to sound surprised, but the only phone calls she got these days were from Jon or the school, so there wasn't much to be surprised by.

"Er- Yes, this is Miss Stone. Rickon has been held back for detention again, and as this is his fourth this week you'll need to come for a meeting with his teacher. Mr Waters will be free from half three today if that's any good for-"

"Yeah, I'll be there. Sorry about Rickon."

"No- no problem. I'll let Mr. Waters know that he can expect you today."

"Yes, okay."

Arya sighed and but the phone back on its stand.

Fuck.

Arya remembered St Aegon's school from her own time there, and even though she was five years removed from it she still got tingles down her spine whenever she walked through the door. Mr. Waters' room was at the end of the Science corridor, opposite the supply cupboard. Arya remembered Mr. Fyrell's lessons in this room, how he would hit the board with the metre ruler and take no shit from them. She had had more than one detention here herself, but never as many as Rickon.

Rickon.

He was sat at the desk at the back closest to the window, staring out at the playing field, pretending not to notice that his sister was standing in the doorway.

"Ah, Miss Stark, it's good to see you again." Mr. Waters stood up from his desk and reached out to shake Arya's hand. She smiled at him. He was Arya's favourite of Rickon's teacher. He actually took the time to listen whereas some of the others had a tendency just to dish out punishment. It also helped that Mr. Waters was six foot tall, seriously in shape, and only four years older than Arya herself.

"Mr. Waters. How's things?"

"Well, this is the fifth time he's not had his homework, so a detention was due, but I wanted to have a chat about some other things as well. Rickon-" he turned to the boy who turned his head towards them, but didn't raise his eyes from the floor, "Miss Stone's expecting you in reception. If you wait there your sister will come and pick you up when we're done."

The boy nodded and walked the long way around the classroom, avoiding Arya as much as possible. He slammed the door behind him.

Arya sighed, "Oh gods. What else has he done?" she turned back to Mr Waters, her face crinkled with worry. His smile was sympathetic.

"Let's take a seat, Miss Stark."

"Fuck, that means it's bad." She groaned, pulling one of the hard plastic seats over to Mr. Waters' desk. She sank into it and looked up to see his eyebrows raised in a schooled expression. She blushed, "Sorry, I don't mean to swear, I'm just- I'll not do it again."

He smiled at her, "It's okay Miss Stark, I understand."

"Thanks." She sank into the chair and sighed again, "Right, so what's going on with Rickon then?"

Mr Waters cleared his throat, "Well, Miss Stark-"

"Sorry, do you mind calling me Arya? Only Miss Stark makes me feel like I'm about to be told off, and I've done my time, so do you mind?"

He blinked at her, clearly a little taken aback, but his smile stayed on his face, so Arya presumed she hadn't offended him too badly.

"Yes, of course, _Arya_. Right, so Rickon, as I've said, hasn't produced a piece of homework for me this entire term, which is naturally worrying, but I do understand that there are difficult circumstances at home?"

Arya couldn't quite meet his eyes – blue and sympathetic – as she thought about how they were doing at home. Sansa and her didn't bicker anymore, and there was general peace, but that was more because it took so much energy just to manage daily life.

"Yeah, our- our parents died last year, and one of our brothers- um-"

"He's missing, isn't he?"

"Oh yeah, yeah Robb. He is – er- missing, but I actually meant our other brother, Bran? Um, he's in hospital, so there's-" she looked down at her knees, watching her fingers twist her scarf around, "there's a few things happening.

She looked up again, and was grateful for the look of understanding, but she didn't really want to be understood right now. She mostly just wanted to see what they could do about Rickon getting his act together.

"There's a lot going on, Arya, I can understand that homework isn't exactly a priority in a situation like that."

"Yeah, that's definitely true. Especially when Rickon's being a little shit and not telling us what's happening at school." She rolled her eyes, and tried not to smile.

"Well there's a lot going on at school, I can't say I blame him for keeping it to himself."

Arya frowned up at him, "What do you mean, Mr Waters?"

He face was coloured with a frown, but his lips twitched when she said his name. "Do you mind calling me Gendry, if I'm going to be calling you Arya?"

"Of course I don't mind. Equal footing and all that." She grinned.

"Right, so, _Arya_ ," he smiled a little bit and then looked down at the paperwork on his desk. There were more than a few pink detention slips with Rickon's name there. Ones that Arya had never seen. "Rickon's been getting into a few fights."

"He what?" The prickling of anger and shame spread across Arya's skin. Someone had been messing with her brother and she hadn't even known to defend him.

"With some of the other boys. There have been scraps and nothing too serious, I've been around to break it up before anything dangerous happens, but I've found that when Rickon's not out fighting at lunch times he's hiding in the library. And last week he asked if he could eat in here with me, so that nobody could find him."

Arya clenched her jaw to keep herself from saying much other than, "Right."

"I don't know how severe the bullying is, and obviously Rickon can stand up for himself, but he shouldn't have to. I've been trying to talk to him and find out who it is exactly, although I do have a pretty good idea, but if you could talk to him too-"

"Yeah." She said quickly, still staring at him. Rickon was the loud one at home. The one who made the crass jokes that brought out groans and giggles from them all. He was the messy one who made his presence known. When even Arya couldn't get Jon to tell them anything, it was Rickon who could get him to crack a joke. She had never known him to run away from a fight, from a challenge. She sniffed.

"I can see you're worried, and I want to reassure you that we'll do everything we can to help." His hand was on her knee and she was a little bit grateful to have worn a skirt this afternoon. It was nice to have some human contact. No, hush, you're here for _Rickon._ She realised that she was staring, not at his face, but at his chest. At the third button down that was a slightly different shade of brown than the others.

"Arya."

She looked up and met his gaze. His eyes were the same shade of blue as his shirt. She nodded. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip.

"If there's anything, anything at all, that I can do to make this a bit easier, please don't hesitate-" he turned away and Arya took the opportunity to admire his profile: strong nose, thick eyebrows, plump lips. He grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled on it.

"This is my number, my personal number, which I do not give out lightly," he held it out with a raised brow and the whisper of a smile, "and which I'm sure you know better than to abuse," he winked and Arya tried to stop herself thinking of all the ways in which she could abuse it. He continued with a more serious look on his face, "I'm concerned that Rickon might slip through the gaps, not through any fault of his family, or anyone in particular," he added hastily when Arya's face slipped into panic, "but just because too often teenage boys get called lazy and disrespectful instead of anyone helping them with what's actually wrong. So please," he stood up from his creaking wooden chair, the scrap of paper still in his outstretched hand, "call me if you have any worries, if there's any further support I can offer."

It was only when she was noticing the pattern of freckles on the underside of his jaw that she realised she should have stood up as well. The meeting was ending.

"Thank-Thank you Gendry," she smiled, scrambling up off the chair as quickly as she could, dragging her bag with her so as to make a sharp exit.

Well, she at least _tried_ to leave. In all the freckle-examining she hadn't notice the strap tangled around the chair-leg, and so was unprepared for it drag the chair up and bash into the back of her legs. She stumbled forwards right into Gendry.  
The sudden forward motion pushed him back down into his chair and Arya found herself on top of him. On his lap.  
Her face was only a breath from his, and her knees spread on either side of one of his large thighs, and it took her a little too long to realise that gripping his upper arm as tightly as she was might give off the wrong impression. Or at least, an improper suggestion. She fixed her eyes on his chest – on that third button down – and forced some air into her lungs.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. He nodded quickly, and then when she made no effort to move, he coughed.

She looked up at his face and jumped, practically throwing herself backwards,

"I'm _so_ sorry! My bag. It –um – the chair." She muttered, trying to tug her skirt back down as she stood - and only managing to stumble forward again. She looked up at him.

While her face was about as hot as the sun, his seemed to have turned to a block of ice. His eyes were glassy, and his speech frozen.

"Oh- um – that's –er – that's – here, let me help." Gendry stuttered them up into a slightly less awkward standing position, his hands brushing against her hips and then whipping away immediately. Arya could feel the blood pounding in her cheeks, and the shame rushing through her.  
Just because he was attractive did not mean it was okay to hit on Rickon's teacher. Especially not when he was so sincere and helpful. Especially not when he had just given her his private number and asked her not to abuse it.

She took a little comfort in the stilted awkwardness when she looked up at his face and saw the blush filling his cheeks. He still looked shocked, but there was a twitching happening with his mouth that Arya felt sure was about to break into a smile.

"So, um," Arya paused and considered her next words as she watched his face. He met her gaze and finally there was a grin, "Now that I've got a proper feel of you," she grinned as his cheeks shone brighter, "as a teacher, of course," she added biting her lip so she didn't smile too widely, "I'll be sure to get in touch if we need anything."

She reached for the paper still clutched in his hand. His skin was rougher than she had expected and his hand larger but she liked holding it, just for a second. Then he pulled away and her hand was curled around nothing more than paper.

"Please, feel free to call me, text me, whatever. If I can be of any help to you at all."

Arya chuckled. She liked the awkward ice-cubes of accidental intimacy too much to let him slip back in _Mr. Waters._ Besides, he had already said all the lovely and sincere things he needed to, a little flirting couldn't hurt now, surely.

"Whatever?" she tilted her head as she looked up at him.

"Yes, of course, whatever you need." He coughed again, clearly doing his best to dredge up the remains of professionalism within him.

"Not 'within reason', or 'as long as it's inappropriate'?" Arya was partly trying to tease him back into that casual laughter she had glimpsed a minute ago, but she was also just marvelling at a person who would present themselves so completely for the benefit of someone else.

"Why? Should I be expecting dick picks?"

Arya laughed out loud for the first time in a while, the answer was so unexpected,

"Well maybe. You never know what you're going to get if you lead with 'text me whatever'."

"True. Well, no limits, whatever you need." He tucked his hands in his pockets as they took a step towards the door. He seemed to want to bring the conversation back down to a more adult level. Arya was having none of it.

"Even dick-pics?"

"If a situation arises where it is completely unavoidable, I'm sure I could handle a few pictures of penises."

Arya laughed, again, not quite sure what would happen if her face was kept from scowling for this long. Was this healthy? No, probably not, Arya Stark didn't giggle and beam, but she didn't mind. Hell, if Rickon wasn't waiting for her she would have asked Gendry if he wanted to carry this on over dinner.

"I'll see how things go," she shrugged, finally twisting the door handle and bursting their bubble, "I should go and fetch my brother."

Gendry sobered up quickly at the mention of Rickon. His smile dropping but there was a look on his face that made her think of Jon, a look of quiet affection. Arya's insides warmed at the sight of it. "Yes, of course."

"I'm not sure how things are going to go with him, if I'm honest, he's sometimes a bit wild, even by Stark standards, but we really are grateful for any and all help you can offer." Arya wasn't sure if it was an appropriate swing back to serious topics of a parent-teacher conference, but she couldn't leave without letting him know. "It will be alright, Gendry," She put a hand on his arm, just for a second, "there's no way we'll let Rickon slip by unnoticed."

And of course she meant it. The Starks stuck together, even when everything was going to shit. No matter what, family held strong. Arya wasn't sure what life would be like if Mr. Gendry Waters and the Stark family had never crossed paths – maybe completely different, maybe with just one more 'F' on Rickon's school report – but even if it was just a drop in the ocean, Arya was thankful for Gendry Waters. Even if she never dialled that number, Gendry was helping them.

"Thank you."

He smiled,

"Happy to help. In whatever way."


End file.
